Saxby Chambliss: he admitted this and other planned but foiled attacks. he admitted he swore allegiance to osama bin laden, was a of al qaeda, was the operation commander for all foreign al qaeda operations and much more. k.s.m. and four other detainees charged with conspiring to commit terrible 9/11 attacks

Saxby Chambliss: also residing at gitmo are osama bin laden's personal body guards, al qaeda terrorist camp trainers, al qaeda bomb makers and individuals picked up on the battlefield with weapons trying to kill american young men and women who patriotically serve their country. the detainees at guantanamo are

Saxby Chambliss: some of the most dangerous al qaeda figures we have captured. in may, just three weeks ago, the senate voted 90-6 to prohibit any of these terrorists from being brought to the united states. despite this clear objection, the administration transferred one detainee -- ahmed ghailani -- to new york city yesterday.

Saxby Chambliss: he is facing charges in the southern district of new york for his role in the august 7, 1998 bombings embassies in africa. some of my colleagues in the senate have touted this as example of how we can bring criminal charges against the gitmo detainees and try them in our courts.

Saxby Chambliss: however, no one has pointed out that ghailani was indicted on march 12, 2001, a full six months prior to the ter attacks of 9/11. and after a full investigation by the federal bureau of investigation. the case against ghailani was built long before he was

Saxby Chambliss: transferred to gitmo in 2006. to imply that other detainees, many of whom never investigated or collected evidence against, may similarly be prosecuted in u.s. courts is naive. the president, in announcing the closing of guantanamo bay in january of this year, failed to

Saxby Chambliss: come forward with a plan to tell the american people what he intended to do with the remaining prisoners being held in tha americans are outraged about the fact that there is potential for those individuals to be transferred to the united states and the possibility that some of them may be

Saxby Chambliss: into american society. the reaction of the administration to the outcry from the american people and to the outcry from members of this body has been, well, we're going to work this out. we're going to get people to take these individuals. needless to say, the previous administration had been trying

Saxby Chambliss: to get folks to allow the return of their countrymen who were housed at guantanamo for years, and they were not successful. that's why we still have 241 detainees at guantanamo. just yesterday there was an announcementhat 17 uighurs, or chinese terrorists, are going to

Saxby Chambliss: be sent to the country of palau. and i doubt that there are many americans who can even tell you where palau is. but it turns out that it is a country containg many, many islands somewhere out in the pacific not far from the philippines. in order to get palau to take these 17 uhurs, the obama

Saxby Chambliss: administration has committed to paying that country $200 million. or, if my calculation is correct, about $11,664,705 per individual. pretty good payment for taking of these prisoners. if that's the standard that

Saxby Chambliss: we're going to be using and the precedent that we're now setting, you can just figure the numbers to look at how much money it's going to transfer these remaini prisoners to other countries. you know, guantanamo is a symbolic issue around the world, and i'm not one who's going to stand here

Saxby Chambliss: and say that we should not close it. obviously there should be some long-range plan to get us out of guantanamo and to ultimately close it. but without the administration coming forward with a plan, the american people are deservedly outraged at the fact that these dividuals may be transferred to facilities, criminal

Saxby Chambliss: facilities in the united they thus become eligible for all rights of individuals who are housed on u.s. domestic soil, including the right of habeas corpus, and thus because -- and not every case have our soldiers been able to look a guy in the eye who's got

Saxby Chambliss: a rifle in his hand and who's shooting at him, but they're able to disarm him and take the weapon away from him. they don't have the opp to gather evidence on the battlefield and to bag up all of that evidence and take the time to write down names of witnesses who saw the activity on the battlefield. so there is the potential that

Saxby Chambliss: some of these individuals might ultimately be successful in a habeas corpus action, be set free by some judge in a u.s. court and, thus, be eligible to be ingratiated into u.s. society. well, a couple of weeks ago i filed a bill in the senate which

Saxby Chambliss: prohibits, number one, any detainee at guantanamo from being transferred to the united states. the administration breached that, and that's why it's more important than ever that we consider this bill. but more importantly, if the president exercises other powers that he has outside of what may

Saxby Chambliss: be even enacted into law, may have, and brings these individuals into the united states, my bill will prohibit any opportunity forny of these individuals who are now housed at guantanamo from released into the society of the united states. i sought to get this bill up as an amendment to the

Saxby Chambliss: supplemental, but, unfortunately, my friends on the other side of the aisle saw it in a different way and wouldn't let my amendment come up. we're going to be back. we're going to have this bill up either as a as an amendment at the next oppounity to make sure that we do everything we can as members of the united states senate that voted

Saxby Chambliss: individuals from guantanamo to the united states to again have the opportunity to vote on this issue and to make sure that not only do we not bring them here, but that if by some quirk the president decides we ought to bring them here and he does so, then there's never the opportunity for those individuals to be released into

Saxby Chambliss: the united states into any of our communities, irrespective of where theyay reside. so, mr. president, i simply would close tonight and say that this is a very, very serious issue that in fact is being considered by the conferees, i understand, on the supplemental

Saxby Chambliss: that we voted on a couple of weeks ago, tonight. and the language that was agreed to by that 90-6 vote may be in jeopardy. democrats may be trying to pull that particular provision in the supplemental out of the supplemental and to, thereby, not have language in there that would prohibit these individuals

Saxby Chambliss: from coming into our country. i think that is cer against the will of the american people. it's certainly against the will of the united states senate in a big way, and i think would be a huge mistake. so, mr. president, i look forward to continuing the debate on this issue. i look forward to our bill

Saxby Chambliss: coming up either in the form of a stand-alone bill or in the form of an amendment. because this is an issue that's not going away until we figure out a way to deal with these individuals that are incarcerated at guantanamo in a lawful manner as enemy combatants, and that we figure out a way to deal with them on a